Investors Flee, Fear Rates Will Rise Again

MARKET WATCH

Blue-chip stocks plummeted Thursday as Wall Street was shaken anew by concern over rising interest rates and the prospect of competition from bonds for investment money.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 140.11 points, or 2.04 percent, at 6,740.59 after being off more than 216 points in late afternoon. For the week, it was down 64.20 points.

In the broader market, declining issues swamped advances 2,015 to 612 on active volume of 475 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange.

Stocks tracked the slump in bonds, which came after the National Association of Realtors reported stronger-than-expected existing-home sales in February.

MARKET MOVERS

Companies whose shares actively traded in U.S. markets. The stock symbol is given in parentheses after the company name.

Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL)

Shares rose $1.875 to $18.625 as Oracle Corp. (ORCL) Chairman and Chief Executive Larry Ellison is considering bidding to gain control of the computer maker, the San Jose Mercury News reported. Ellison said he's formed an investor group and will decide in the next few days whether to make the bid, which could be valued at more than $1 billion. Oracle fell $1.125 to $39.375.

Argyle Television (ARGL)

Shares fell $2 to $25.50 as Hearst Corp. said it would buy the television station operator and owner for $526 million in cash, stock and assumed debt to form a new company called Hearst-Argyle Television.

Barr Laboratories (BRL)

Shares rose $3 to $39.50 after the pharmaceutical company said it received U.S. Federal Drug Administration clearance to sell its generic version of DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co.'s anti-clotting drug, Coumadin.

Bre-X Minerals Ltd. (BXMNF)

Shares fell $9.23 to $1.88 a day after Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold. Inc. said initial analysis indicated "insignificant amounts of gold" in the company's mine at the Busang site in Borneo.

C-Cube Microsystems Inc. (CUBE)

Shares fell $2.25 to $26 amid fears that the chipmaker might not meet first-quarter earnings estimates because of slow demand in China. C-Cube is expected to earn 40 cents, based on the average estimate of three analysts polled by IBES International Inc.

Dialogic Corp. (DLGC)

Shares fell $7.32 to $19.625 after the communications software company said it expects first-quarter earnings to fall below First Call earnings estimates of 31 cents a share.

Shares gained 18.75 cents to $60.75 as it said it abandoned plans to invest $500 million to build a GSM digital mobile-phone network in Ukraine after the government changed the terms. Motorola on Wednesday won a contract valued at $1.5 billion or more to supply cellular phone equipment in Japan using a rival technology called code-division multiple-access, or CDMA.

Philip Morris Co. (MO)

Shares fell $2.375 to $117.125 as the cigarette maker said it would file court documents with the Mississippi Supreme Court in an attempt to stop Brooke Group Ltd.'s (BTI) tobacco division from handing over confidential industry documents. A lower court ruled that the documents could be handed over as part of a settlement between Liggett and 22 states with lawsuits against the tobacco industry.